The Current Wheel. 181 
to. Similar efforts naturally suggest themselves to the user of 
a small water supply to save his flow from loss. Where lumber 
is cheap, the use of a board flume is the most available means 
of saving water. 
Irrigation from Wells—A considerable area of orchard is 
irrigated from flowing wells in different parts of the State. 
Nearly everywhere in the artesian districts there are local well- 
borers who have kept records of the strata traversed in their 
work and can estimate closely the cost of securing water by this 
method. 
Wells to supply pumps will be incidentally mentioned in 
connection with a later paragraph on pumping. They consti- 
tute a great and a growing feature in our present irrigation devel- 
opment. Naturally the availability of wells for irrigation must 
«He \. 
End View of Irrigating Wheel. 
be locally determined. Recent experience shows that even deep 
wells can be profitably used with proper pumping appliances. 
Lifting Water from Flowing Ditch or Siream—Where a 
stream has a rapidity of two miles or more per hour, and a lift 
to a height of six to sixteen feet will give head enough to dis- 
tribute the water over a considerable area, there is nothing 
cheaper than the current wheel which is largely used in this 
State. The engraving gives an end view of such a wheel. 
Eight pairs of arms, carrying flat buckets like those of a 
steamboat paddle-wheel, extend from a hub rotating on metal 
bearings. At either end or both ends of each bucket are fixed 
wooden or tin water boxes which fill themselves on entering the 
water, and on being brought to the highest point of rotation 
empty themselves into a receiving trough. This trough sup- 
plies the distributing ditches, etc., and its inner end is so placed 
that it comes under the projecting buckets of the wheel without 
